PSNStores Game of the Year Awards: Day Four

With 2016 behind us the PSNStores Podcats once again have gathered to discuss our favorite games from the last year. You can listen to our full Game of the Year podcast right here! Today we’ve got “Best VR Game”, “Best Vita Game”, “Best PS4 Game”, and our “Top 5 Games of 2016”.

Best VR Game

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

PlayStation VR is only a few months old, but we still had a handful of games that really stuck out to us from its launch period. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood impressed us with its ability to make you feel like you’re riding an actual roller-coaster. Going up inclines, flying through steep drops, and taking wide turns all transported us from our chair into a terrifying ride for our life. In relation to VR, Until Dawn was one of the best games at capturing that sense of presence that we’re looking for from the new headset. It’s also a really solid light-gun game.

Runners-Up: Headmaster, Wayward Sky

Top 5 Games of 2016

#5 Salt & Sanctuary

Salt & Sanctuary is an impressive feat when you consider that it was done by just two people. To this day, it’s one of the best reinterpretations of the Souls-series and manages to capture most of what makes From Software’s games so great.

#4 Severed

Eric: I was admittedly a bit worried by Severed before its release. Drinkbox Studios have released some of my favorite games (not just PSN titles), so the thought of a first-person dungeon crawler with a touch screen control scheme left me feeling… uncertain. The game delivers. Besides for maybe Inside, Severed had the most affecting scenes in a game I played this year. I still remember Sasha, the game’s protagonist, and the two-headed demonic jester bird that helps her along the way. That’s saying a lot, since I played the game at the beginning of the year and can’t remember any characters from any other games I’ve played this year. If you have a Vita, if you like Drinkbox Studios, if you enjoy Super Punchout (I know, weird pairing), you need Severed.

#3 Overcooked

Eric: Overjoyed. The first time I broke out Overcooked, I was with a group of two gamers and two non-gamers. Besides for a slight bit of anxiety felt by some of the non-gamers (which I would argue is a purposeful and positive aspect of the game) in the group, we were all over the moon. What makes a great local multiplayer game?

1 dash of control scheme – Only use two buttons and the analogue stick!
1 handful of time-management – Always feel like you have just too little time.
2 mouthfuls of screaming – Communication is key!

Stir together ingredients with a large offering of devilishly designed levels.
Serves 2 – 4.

#2 Bound

“I truly can’t think of a game that has left me in such a trance-like state, not in the way that Bound did. The game’s lead, a young princess ballerina, moves with grace and dances effortlessly throughout her kingdom of colored shards and improbable geometry. The animation on the princess alone is just astounding, and this is coupled with a world that’s in constant motion around her. At times Bound feels like an incredibly elaborate ballet that I’m fortunate enough to take part in.”

#1 Inside

If you’ve somehow gone this long without being spoiled and if you’ve yet to play through Inside. Let us be one of many to say, go play Inside. Through our review, spoilercast, Game of the Year podcast, and elsewhere in these very Game of the Year posts; we’ve said all we have to say on Inside. Something that’s kind of tough, considering just how hard it is not to spoil.

In the end this is a game that stuck with us and had a lasting impact long after the credits rolled. It is, without question, our Game of the Year for 2016.

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